Title: Dangerous Days on the Victorian Railways
Author: Terry Deary
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 278
Rating: 3.5/5
This book is written by the legendary Terry Deary, who created the Horrible Histories series. Here, I guess we see that he’s diversified, although he’s still teaching us plenty about history. It’s just that it’s written more for adults, although you might not realise that from glancing at it. In fact, I was pretty surprised that it contained the word “fucking”, which might be a bit of a bummer if you got this for your kids.
But it does have some great information on the rise of the railways and the key figures involved, and it even sets the record straight in a couple of places. As with most of history, there are a few people who’ve been underserved and then forgotten.
Overall, if you’re looking for a book to read that will teach you a little bit about how our railway systems came about, this is perfect for a beginner. There are also none of those annoying little quizzes that mess with the flow when you read one of Deary’s Horrible Histories books. I’m sure they’re great if you’re a kid and all (although I seem to remember not liking them even then), but they do tend to slow things down as you’re going through it.
So would I recommend it? Yeah, I guess. It was alright, and a good little find considering I paid next to nothing for it. Don’t go out of your way to try to track it down though, unless you’re massively into trains and the like.
